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Is AI bad for critical thinking? It depends on when you use it

60
Graduate
Chimera Difficulty Score
a synthesis of Flesch-Kincaid, Coleman-Liau, SMOG, and Dale-Chall readability metrics
Is AI bad for critical thinking? It depends on when you use it If used later in writing an essay, the chatbots can help include more perspectives This is a human-written story voiced by AI. Got feedback? Take our survey . (See our AI policy here .) Next time you’re about to ask an AI chatbot to help you solve a hard problem, you might want to slow your roll. People who waited to consult an AI chat...
The study suggests a trade-off between independent reasoning and speed when using AI chatbots for critical thinking tasks. Participants who had time to reason through the material on their own before using AI performed better because they engaged in slower, more deliberate learning. However, under tight deadlines, using AI early on boosted performance, although it may lead to relying too heavily on the chatbot's framing. The results align with research on two kinds of learning: one based on slow...